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The Urban Land Institute spent six days in Tampa last week, but the report they will produce could influence transportation and development in Tampa much longer.
As they have done in hundreds of places across the world (including Pasco County), ULI presented a playbook for the City of Tampa to use in the development and redevelopment of the central city neighborhoods. This includes downtown, Ybor City, Tampa Heights, West Tampa and “West Bank”, which ULI considers to be the area north and east of Historic Hyde Park, on the west bank of the Hillsborough River. “West Bank” would include the University of Tampa and North Boulevard between Kennedy Blvd. and the Hillsborough River.
 ULI's vision for Tampa's central city neighborhoods
For transportation supporters, ULI won’t offer a tonic for what ails you. But that is because transportation is not their job. ULI is a real estate organization that studies transportation as a part of land use development. For anyone hoping ULI would draw a hub-and-spoke rail network linking Tampa to Pinellas, Pasco and Sarasota/Manatee, you will be disappointed. But ULI did draw a few lines that provide a jumping off point for transportation improvements in Tampa and the entire region.
ULI has suggested several easy fixes that would improve transportation in Tampa: safe bike paths, Complete Streets on Ashley Drive and Florida Avenue, better gateways into downtown, and finishing the Riverwalk on both sides of the Hillsborough River. These are not necessarily “easy,” but striping for bike lanes or making sure Ashley Drive is something less than a six-lane speedway should not be controversial.
But there were two points that could be controversial. Look at the picture included here. Do you see the orange line that looks like a U with a connected top? That is ULI’s vision for the Tampa Streetcar. Do you see the big circles near North Boulevard, Tampa Heights and the Encore project? Those are targets for “walkable transit-ready districts.” If Tampa is not going to have light rail in the next five years, at least the city can encourage development that allows, “seniors to age in place and young people to live in biking and walking communities.” These projects cost money and are hard work, but they are possible and worth the money and effort in the long run. As the St. Petersburg Times said, "The city has a lot of work to do. But the [study] showed that redevelopment is not all pie in the sky."
Studies will tell you that denser and diverse development will create more public revenue, while lowering the cost of service, per capita. If communities are built for live, work and play, transportation costs are dramatically cut, which means more money in your pocket.
Complete Streets policies make roads into an “economic generator” for a neighborhood district. Think of Ashley Drive now, versus an Ashley Drive with sidewalk cafes, and surface parking lots turned into shops. (ULI thought of this, by advocating for overturning regulations against sidewalk cafes on state-owned roads like Kennedy Blvd.) On Complete Streets, businesses can be built without the city’s current parking requirements.
All of ULI’s suggestions will be further expanded in their final report to be released in a few months. Just as Pasco has found with their ULI study, it will take a lot of hard work to begin to amend development and land use codes. But if it means Tampa and the region moves toward a world class transportation network to serve our world class development, the hard work will be worth it.
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